Posts by Lucy Stewart

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  • Hard News: Right This Time?,

    So what do you suggest Lucy? the Naughty step or a Smack?.

    Oh, definitely the Naughty Step.

    And Hone actually got permission from the person he was having the meeting with to forego said meeting the next day.Hone paid his wifes fare himself. He spoke to the woman in Brussels himself,(got permission)

    The point is: being an MP representing NZ is not like being on a school trip. You can't "get permission" to skip it. Or, well, you can, but a) I suspect that the chairperson wouldn't have felt it was their place to tell a foreign delegate what to do and b) so what? You're still missing a meeting you got sent to Europe to attend because, basically, you think it's too boring to bother with. Just the attitude we want in our MPs, right?

    I don't think he cared how anyone felt Perhaps he is a bit childish, not punishable offence though.

    Well, here's the tough thing about choosing to be an MP and "play by whitey's rules": your actions are publicly judged. He might not care about what other people think, but he's a fool if he thinks what other people think doesn't matter in the context of his career as an MP.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report

  • Hard News: Right This Time?,

    i'm all for playing the game by your own rules and like hone, fuck what whitey thinks.

    It's hardly as if the criticism is coming exclusively along racial lines.

    On one hand we have Rodney taking advantage of perks that only a few in Parliament have got and has since been repealed (possibly because it was unfair) then as soon as Hone was honest to the public when asked, he is seen as the radical Maori who has been naughty for some time.

    Given the Weekend Herald's headline is about Hide, you can hardly say Hide's getting away with it. Hone's not being radical, or naughty. I think he's just playing silly buggers.

    Telling your party leader you were sick when you were actually in Paris - that's teenage stuff. It's got attention because it was silly, because there were plenty of ways he could have done the same thing legitimately, and because he then threw a foul-mouthed tantrum when he was called on it. I don't think it's corrupt or wasting taxpayers' money or whatever, I just think it's childish.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report

  • Busytown: A good read,

    When essays were returned there were no comments relating to specific passages, or even a comment on the essay in general, just an overall grade.

    That's irredeemably slack. For starters, anyone reading it closely enough to mark it should be able to put down at least a few comments. How did they expect anyone to actually learn how to improve their work?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report

  • Hard News: It was 20 years ago tomorrow ...,

    The WINZ office in Riccarton backs onto the only Gun Shop for miles & across the road from the Blood Bank.

    I always wondered about that particular piece of juxtaposition...

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report

  • Busytown: A good read,

    It's weird an engineering school would simply throw someone out for this and for an engineer writing is not the whole of the craft. Quite rightly of course because it speaks to integrity and for an engineer integrity = lives.

    Engineers belong to a professional body which has a code of ethics; they try to impress upon them early that they need to learn to follow them. They take the "profession" bit seriously; gives them a reason to swank over science students, who just have careers.

    (I know this because I was once dragooned into helping mark first-year engineering students' essays on why engineers were professionals rather than, e.g., common tradesmen. Plagiarism would have provided some light relief. And grammar.)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report

  • Busytown: A good read,

    That's a word. It's not the one that sprang to my mind. Or yours, right?

    Mostly as a euphemism for "a fucking stupid thing to do", I will admit.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report

  • Hard News: Body image and the media,

    Ah, so we all watch Ax Men too? Beats those blokes in the Crab Boats, are they insane?

    I was thinking more Monty Python...

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report

  • Hard News: It was 20 years ago tomorrow ...,

    Given their inability to cope with the idea that if my father was dead last year he would still be dead this year, I can imagine.

    They are deeply unable to cope with anyone who is just about to cross the age threshold for means-testing applying for an allowance to start after their birthday, either. The conversation basically goes:

    "You're twenty-three. We need to see evidence of your parents' income."

    "Yes, but by the time my course starts, in three weeks, I'll be twenty-four. By the time you post the request to them, I'll be twenty-four and you won't need it."

    "But you're twenty-three. We need to see evidence of your parents' income."

    "BY THE TIME THE EVIDENCE GETS TO YOU, I WILL BE TWENTY-FOUR."

    "But you're twenty-three."

    I also once got a letter from them asking for information that they needed by the thirteenth of March. The letter was dated (and arrived after) the twentieth of June. Oh, Studylink.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report

  • Busytown: A good read,

    It's definitely complex; the quotes were mostly tweaked and then spliced into the surrounding text. The Listener will have a sidebar featuring some of the more significant examples.

    Oooooooh. That's...problematic. I know it can be easy to unconsciously re-use someone else's turn of phrase, but that sounds a bit more premeditated, as it were.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report

  • Hard News: Right This Time?,

    He's acting as if going to Paris is something he'd never have a chance to do otherwise. Um, dude, you're a well-paid person with a lot of time off and there are flights to Europe *every day*.

    My partner very saliently pointed out that this sounds like a function of socio-economic thinking; if you've grown up believing that only rich people go to places like Europe, and most of your family and friends never have, then even if logic dictates that you have the money and time to go, once you're actually there the temptation is going to be much greater to bunk off than if you went there on your OE and you have relatives and friends over there and visiting Europe for a holiday is on your mental map, as it were.

    Of course, for all I know none of the above applies, but his "how many times in my life..." comment sounds like that may have influenced his thought process.

    (Note: this is in no way any sort of excuse, because Harawira is also apparently under the illusion he's still in college and it's OK to wag occasionally, but I thought it was an interesting psychological insight into why he might do something so mind-bogglingly irresponsible.)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report

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